Device for guiding and stacking letters and similar papers in letter sorting apparatus



y 1938- J. J. M. 1.. MARCHAND 2,124,858

DEVICE FOR GUIDING AND STACKING LETTERS AND SIMILAR PAPERS IN LETTER SORTING' 'APPARATUS Filed May 11, 1935 2 Shqets-Sheet 1 July 26, 1938. J. J. M. L. MARCHAND 2,124,353

DEVICE FOR GUIDING AND STACKING LETTERS AND SIMILAR PAPERS IN LETTER SORTING APPARATUS Filed May 11, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 O l l mlvgw rm' \jan Jase 05 Mari/)2 107275672 Mrcianci ATTORNEYS Patented July 26, 1938 UNITED STATES DEVICE FOR GUIDING AND STACKING LET- TERS AND SIMILAR PAPERS IN LETTER SORTING APPARATUS Jean Joseph Martin Lambert Marchand,

The Hague, Netherlands Application May 11, 1935, Serial No. 20,932 In Germany May 16, 1934 12 Claims.

In sorting and conveying apparatus for letters and similar articles it is desirable that these articles all pile up in regular stacks on the collecting places, the surface bearing the address (or the surface corresponding with this, when there should be no real address) all to the same side (for instance upside) and the addresses in the same direction, as prescribed for postal matter by the regulations of the Universal Postal Convention, so that the so formed stacks can be bundled easily without further arrangement or also sorted out easily in a subsequent course of sorting, when this should be necessary:

For this purpose it is indispensable to prevent the articles as much as possible from turning in an undesired manner in their plane or on an axis in their plane during conveying and to take care that they are directed again as well as possible when they should have turned yet more or less. That is to say, in case the letters have become turned slightly out of their true plane, they are returned back to planar position by their collision at the top of the sidewall upon entering the chute and also further by the guide-edge b at the bottom of the chute.

For this purpose several means are known.

For instance guiding chutes with a hollow bottom that is to say, hollowed concave at the bottom are used for guiding the letters from conveying bands or other conveying means to the collecting places. These chutes have a certain directing effect, but they can be used only up to a certain inclination and can not be laid with their ends sloping much or even vertically, because light articles then are blown up by the air resistance at their great falling speed and by the small resulting pressure on the bottom. They so leave this bottom, by which action the directing effect is lost. The arrangement of speed reducing devices in the chutes, as e. g. flat springs, under which the letters must pass, or flaps as to the Austrian Patent No. 125,827, is detrimental to the security of good working for the danger of obstruction and moreover it diminishes the convey.- ing capacity. That is to say, it is a known physical fact that light articles with a large surface, such as sheets of paper, during their fall, when they have been first in upright standing position, are turned by the air resistance and begin to flutter. As proved by trials, postcards and such light articles tend to rise up from the lower wall of the chute in gliding downward and they would leave the path, formed by the side wall of the chute and the rib b, if they were not kept in this path by the counter-rib c of the top wall of the chute. This would occur especially when the chute is put in steeply inclined or almost vertical position, because the pressure on the bottom wall is slight in this case. That is to say, in a steeply already inclined chute light articles suchv as, for instance, postcards, have a tendency to rise up from the lower wall of the chute by the air resistance during their descent in the chute and they would leave the proper path, formed. by the side wall 8 and the ledge q of the rib b, if they were not kept in this path by the counter-rib 0.

According to the invention, from which the drawings give an execution form, several other means are used, either in combination or each separately, for obtaining a good stacking on the collection places in accordance with the mentioned regulations.

In said drawings,

Fig. 1 is a front view of a guide chute, showing guide-edges band arranged in the direction of motion of the letters and similar papers;

Fig. 2 is a front view of the lower part of a guide chute, showing this lower part in a modified form, with a hollow or concave bottom;

Fig. 3 is a side view of a system, or sheaf, of guide chutes with the lower parts of these chutes and the receptacles, belonging to them, in section;

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic section of a guide chute, transverse to the direction of motion of the letters, on a larger scale, showing the guide-edges b and c and, in dotted lines, a letter or similar paper in the path of travel;

Fig. 5 is a vertical diagrammatic section of a receptacle with a fixed bottom, showing the flap f and the contacts h, seen from the side;

. Fig. 6 is a vertical section, seen from the side, of a receptacle with a hinged bottom;

Fig. 7 is a vertical section, seen from the side, of a receptacle with a spring loaded bottom, and

Fig. 8 is a vertical section, seen from the rear, of the receptacle of Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 represents schematically a device for stopping the apparatus when an article intercepts the ray of light of Fig.3.

When e. g. guiding chutes are used for conveying the letters, these being possibly of different dimensions and mixed up in these different dimensions, that is, unsorted as to size, these guiding chutes, especially the first parts a of them in which the letters arrive first, can be provided with guide-edges b and 0 arranged in the direction of motion of the letters as to Fig. 1 of'the drawings. The drawings show only one bottom-guide-edge b and one counter-edge 0, but there can be more than one of them when desired. The counteredges have circumstantially, besides the right guidance of letters, also the task to keep these sliding in the path of the bottom-edges, which is 'especially important when very much inclined or vertical chutes are used. When desired the edges can be arranged in such a manner, that the passage diverges to the lower end.

The cross section of these edges is of such a form, e. g. barbed hook shaped'as in Fig. .4, so

that the papers can glide over them easily in one cross direction, but that a gliding in the other cross direction is hindered as much as possible. In this way the papers can come'easily into the so formed path, especially when they are thrown into the chutes in a cross slanting way or when the chutes are put slanting in the cross direction. But the papers cannot get out ofl this path easily, so that they can glide downwards in the desired (vertical) position as shown in Fig. 1 and without diminishing their speed, but they are hindered in turning, whilst at the same time their position is corrected when they should have made already an undesired turn,'this correction being effected also by the collision, of the vertical sides of the papers at the sidewall of the chute or at the guide-edges.

When the chutes are wider than necessay for the size of the papers, the guide strips eifect furthermore, that the papers are guided to one side of the chutes, so that the collecting boxes or receptacles can be made smaller than the chutes,

which is desirable for enabling a good stacking.

In apparatuses with collecting boxes or receptacles with slightly slanting or horizontal bottom and much inclined or vertical chutes there can be arranged, at the lower part of the chutes,

parts d, Figs. 1 and 3, with less inclination and v of known form, e. g. also withhollow' bottom (c, Fig. 2), which have to alter the direction of motion of the papers in such a way that these approach to their horizontal position and pile up regularly in the receptacle, while they are directed at the same time by the collision of their foremost or underside at the bottom. By this action they turn therefore a little on an axis in their plane.

For promoting the regular stacking further, when boxes or receptacles are used for collecting the letters, guideor collision-flaps f (Figs. 3, 5, 6, '1) of suitable elastic material can be fixed 'at the top of these receptacles, which flaps hang downward by their own weight and along the underside of which flaps the letters must glide. In this manner the papers are guided downward again at their foremost side, by which they are put more flat at the bottom of the receptacle or at the top of the alreadyformed stack, because their foremost side collides first at this "underside of the flap, and furthermore the formation of undesired heaps, that is, jam-piles by letters arriving in the lower foremost part of the receptacle, is prevented. Moreover their inertia is damped partly by this collision and gliding, so that they do not spring back much at their collision at the front of the receptacle, which also is a benefit to the good stacking.

Moreover the papers are gripped or seized a little by the weight of the free end of the flap, resting on the stack when this is growing higher, such with the same result as mentioned above.

These flaps can be provided in easy manner with an electric contact h, Fig. 5, which switches on an alarm device, a lamp, a bell, buzzer or similar device, when the stack has reached a certain height, for warning that the respective receptacle must be emptied.

In order to have, for every receptacle or every vertical row of receptacles (Fig. 3), a check whether a receptacle is going to be filled too much,

so that the letters begin to heap together in the lower part of the chute and do not come into the ranged in the bottoms of these lower parts (or,

when desired, also in the upper parts) of the chutes, as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 and this in sucha manner, that a lamp it, put in the axis of these holes, lightens a little window m, when desired by reflection on a mirror i. The rays of light are intercepted by a paper, lying on a hole or put before it.

These optical warning signals can, when desired, be completed by applying already known electrical devices by means of which other waming signals are put into action, or the machine stopped, by interception of these rays of light.

For example, in the accompanying drawings, Figure 9 represents schematically a device to be used in an apparatus having a guide chute as mentioned above,.the apparatus being driven by an electric motor which is switched on and oil! by means of a relay-actuated automatic switch of common design.

The ray of light from a lamp is shown in Figure 3 is projected through holes 1' on a photo cell fc, Figure 9, the electrical resistance of which is diminished by the ray of light. is placed in an electrical circuit with the coil of a relay re which opens and closes contacts co, the

ing what'is in effect an automatic switch. These This photo cell contacts are placed in an electrical circuit which is connected to and controls the motor-driven apparatus mentioned above. light is intercepted, the resistance of photo cell fc will increase and by well dimensioned parts and voltage the coil of relay re will not be energized sufficiently to keep the contacts co closed. When the contacts are no -longer closed current will no longer flow through the motor circuit and the motor-driven apparatus will be stopped Instead of the photo cell {0 as explained above, a photo cell can be used in which an electric current is incited by a ray of light falling on it, of the type as used e. g. in exposure meters for photog- When the ray of I raphy. In this case the current incited by' the a letters are prevented from falling aside in the receptacle.

Underneath these moving bottoms electric contacts can be arranged in order to warn when the stack has reached a certain height, just as described for the flaps I.

The bottoms can also be hinged for the same purpose, as shown schematically in Fig. 6.

Now having described the nature of my invention and the manner in which it is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:

1. A chute for conveying and guiding letters and similar articles, whose interior is provided with at leastone pair of longitudinally-extending projections, said projections being placed on opposite, sides of the chute and being laterally displaced with reference to one another, whereby one projection in cooperation with a side of the chute forms a channel in which the letters or similar articles may travel and the other projection serves to keep the letters or similar articles in this another, whereby the projection on the lower surface in cooperation with a side of the chute forms a channel in which the letters or similar articles may travel and the projection on the upper surface of the chute serves to keep the letters or similar articles in this channel.

3. A chute for conveying and guiding letters or similar articles, whose interior is provided with at least one pair of upper and lower longitudinally-extending angular projections, said projections being placed on the upper and lower surfaces of the chute, respectively, and being laterally displaced with reference to one another, the upper projection tending to keep the letters or similar articles in a channel formed by one side of the chute and one side of the lower projection, said side of the lower projection forming an acute angle with the lower surface of the chute.

4. A chute for conveying and guiding letters or similar articles, whose interior is provided with at least one pair of upper and lower longitudinally-extending angular projections, said projections being placed on the upper and lower surfaces of the chute, respectively, and being laterally displaced with reference to one another, the upper projection tending to keep the letters or similar articles in a channel formed by one side of the chute and one side of the lower projection, said side of the lower projection forming an acute angle with the lower surface of the chute, and the other side of the lower projection forming an obtuse angle with the lower surface of the chute.

5. A chute for conveying and guiding letters and similar articles, whose interior is provided with at least one pair of upper and lower longitudinally-extending projections, said projections being placed on the upper and lower surfaces of the chute, respectively, and being laterally displaced with reference to one another, the lower projection in conjunction with the lower surface of the chute forming a longitudinally-extending recess, which in cooperation with one side of the chute forms a channel in which the letters or similar articles may travel, the upper projection tending to keep the letters or similar articles in this channel.

6. A conveying apparatus for letters and similar articles which comprises an inclined chute in which articles move down by gravity, a receptacle for receiving letters and similar articles deposited in said chute, a resilient flap attached to said receptacle, said resilient flap having a free end which retards the speed of letters and similar articles entering the receptacle from the chute and which causes the letters to be regularly stacked in the receptacle, the free end of said resilient flap, being so positioned with respect to the bottom and the front wall of the receptacle that said resilient flap prevents reversion of the letters and similar articles entering the receptacle.

'7. A conveying apparatus for letters and similar articles which comprises a chute, a receptacle for receiving letters and similar articles deposited in said chute, a resilient flap attached to said receptacle. said resilient flap having a free end which retards the speed'of letters and similar articles entering the receptacle from the chute and which causes the letters to be regularly stacked in the receptacle, and means attached to said free end of said flap for indicating when the letters or similar articles within the receptacle attain a predetermined height.

8. A conveying apparatus for letters and similar articles which comprises a chute, a receptacle for receiving letters and similar articles deposited in said chute, a resilient flap attached to. said receptacle, said resilient flap having a free end which retards the speed of letters and similar articles entering the receptacle from the chute and which causes the letters to be regularly stacked in the receptacle, a yieldable bottom in said receptacle, said bottom moving in proportion to the weight of the letters or similar articles placed upon it and means attached to said yieldable bottom for indicating when the weight of the letters and similar articles on said bottom has reached a predetermined amount.

9. A conveying apparatus for letters and similar articles which comprises a receptacle, a chute for conveying letters and similar articles emptying into said receptacle and having an aperture adjacent to said receptacle, means for passing a beam of light through said aperture and means for indicating when said beam of light has been more than momentarily intercepted by a. letter or similar article covering the aperture in said chute.

10. A conveying apparatus for letters and similar articles which comprises a receptacle for receiving letters and similar articles, a chute for conveying letters and similar articles to said receptacle, said chute having an aperture adjacent to said receptacle, means for passing a beam of light through said aperture, and means for indicating when said beam of light has been more than momentarily intercepted by a letter or similar article covering the aperture of said chute.

11. A conveying apparatus for letters and similar articles which comprises a receptacle for receiving letters and similar articles, a chute for conveying letters and similar articles to said receptacle, said chute having an aperture adjacent to said receptacle, means for passing a beam of light through said aperture,.a photoelectric cell upon which the beam of light passing through the aperture is directed, means actuated by said photoelectric cell for stopping the operation of the apparatus and for giving a signal when said beam of light has been more than momentarily intercepted by a letter or similar article covering the aperture in said chute.

12. A conveying apparatus which comprises a plurality of receptacles for receiving letters and similar articles, a plurality of chutes for conveying letters and similar articles from said sorting device to said receptacles, an aperture in each of said chutes, said apertures being in coaxial alignment, means for passing a beam of light through said coaxially aligned apertures, a photoelectric cell upon which the beam of light passing through said apertures is directed, means adapted by said photoelectric cell for stopping the operation of the apparatus and for giving a signal when said beam of light has been more than momentarily intercepted by a letter or similar article covering any of the apertures in said chutes.

JEAN JOSEPH MARTIN LAMBERT MARCHAND. 

